Sichel Wines' family property Château Trillol, AOC Corbières has been awarded France's highest accolade for food and wine, the Prix d'Excellence 2013 in its Concours Général Agricole.

Château Trillol was awarded its Prix d'Excellence for the best Languedoc wine in the wine and cheese category.

Awarded by the French Ministry of Agriculture for consistently high performance over several years - there are only seven Prix d'Excellence each year for seven categories out of a total of 20,000 entries.

The Sichel family was one of the first ‘outsiders' to invest in the Languedoc when Peter A. Sichel bought the property in 1990 after being impressed by the region's terroir and wine quality.

Château Trillol is located high up in the foothills of the Pyrenees at an altitude of 400 metres (1,312ft) outside the village of Cucugnan. Benjamin Sichel, one of the five Sichel brothers who own and run Maison Sichel is technical director at its Angludet estate in Margaux, Bordeaux and is in charge of viticulture and winemaking, assisted by Henri Guiot.

He said:  "We are very proud to get this recognition. As it is given to the producers rather than an actual vintage of wine, it acknowledges hard work by all the team over more than 20 years. Making wine in the Corbières has its challenges ‒ wild boar destroying the vines and incredibly low yields among them - but it is hugely rewarding. The quality of the vineyard, our understanding of it and the wine we produce has just got better."

Sichel and Guiot have undertaken a long-term project of expansion and replanting, so that the estate now boasts 40 hectares of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan in two distinct Corbières terroirs, Termenès and Quéribus.